Within the framework of fighting corruption and promoting cooperation between the two organizations, the Sultan Qaboos University, represented by its College of Law, and the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center (ROLACC), Doha signed an agreement to set up an anti-corruption chair at the College. The agreement was signed by H.E Dr. Ali bin Saud Al Bemani, Vice-Chancellor of SQU and H.E Dr. Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center on Wednesday, 16 October 2019 at SQU.
The College represented by its deans is the main participants in the Arab Anti-Corruption Initiative, which was launched by the Center (ROLACC) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The college has a great role in improving this initiative, which has resulted in conducting research, discussions, and launching an integrated academic course to teach anti-corruption at the Arab Universities.
The Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre (ROLACC) was founded on the desire to construct and develop specialized knowledge and skills for use by individual practitioners and institutions, which would lead to the strengthening of the rule of law and fight corruption in line with international standards and national needs.
The agreement aims to promote the latest methods and best practices to address corruption and abuses of the rule of law, and through capacity building, training, conferences, and seminars to prevent and combat corruption, as well as teaching courses related to anti-corruption. This came as an implementation of Article (5) paragraph (b) and Article (6) paragraph (1/b) of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which the Sultanate has ratified in 2013 by Royal Decree No. 64/2013.
The Sultanate also issued a new penal code in January 2018 by Royal Decree No. 7/2018, which included rules related to combating corruption, in addition to other procedures taken by the Sultanate after joining the convention.
The establishment of this chair at the College of Law will offer a course on UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to teach in the College of Law as a requirement for students' legal training.
The establishment of the chair will help to spread the legal culture among the students of the college and the university community to combat corruption, through organizing some legal activities among students such as legal research, moot court competitions and organizing workshops and conferences. The contribution of the (ROLACC) will help in the success of implementing these activities.
It is worth mentioning that the establishment of this chair at the Sultan Qaboos University comes because of the university standing as a prestigious academic reputation, especially as it is one of the first universities in the Arab world and internationally in the establishment of a specialized chair to combat corruption. This chair comes as a series of chairs established by ROLACC in some universities in Arab and other countries such as the University of Jordan, Neelain University and the University of Spain.